Sobu High School, school corridor.
Leon and Yukino Yukinoshita were walking side-by-side, one a step ahead, the other just one step behind, heading together toward the Service Club's clubroom.
Leon's mood was clearly excellent; he was humming a tune as he walked, looking thoroughly delighted. Yukino Yukinoshita, in contrast, looked completely dejected, even questioning her existence internally.
"How did I become a Devil?"
Yukino Yukinoshita had been pondering this question the entire walk, and the more she thought, the more miserable she felt.
Not only had she faced a fatal danger, but upon waking up the next day, she had been immediately stripped of her humanity and transformed from a high-born young lady into someone else's servant. If she hadn't seen all of this with her own eyes, Yukino Yukinoshita would have surely believed she was still in a nightmare and had yet to wake up.
The students inside Sobu High didn't know how depressed Yukino Yukinoshita was at the moment, only looking at the two walking together with surprise, beginning to whisper and chatter amongst themselves.
"Isn't that Eligos-senpai from third year and Yukinoshita from second year?"
"Why are those two walking together?"
"Don't tell me... they're dating?"
"No way?"
These discussions were not loud, but Yukino Yukinoshita still heard them, making her even more despondent.
"Ugh..."
Just then, sunlight shone through the nearby window, hitting Yukino Yukinoshita and causing her discomfort again.
"...Did I really turn into a Devil, and not a Vampire?"
Yukino Yukinoshita quietly voiced her dissatisfaction.
"Who said only Vampires hate sunlight?" Leon replied without turning his head. "Devils are also creatures that are active at night and can better utilize their power in the darkness. You'll know when night falls; you'll clearly feel power surging within you—that is the power of a Devil."
"What about you?" Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Leon, who was unaffected by the sunlight, and asked with confusion, "Why don't you seem to find the daytime difficult at all?"
"Because I'm already used to it," Leon continued, still without turning around. "You're only like this because you've just been reborn as a Devil. After some time, you'll completely adapt, and it won't feel uncomfortable anymore."
"I should remind you, though, Devils fundamentally dislike light. The stronger the power of light, the worse it is for our bodies."
"Light is poison, at least to us. Angels and Fallen Angels are races that use light as weapons; they are our natural enemies. If you run into one, remember not to engage in a head-on fight, okay?"
Leon's words reminded Yukino Yukinoshita of the Fallen Angel from yesterday.
At that time, the opponent had condensed dim light and even shaped it into a spear to pierce her body.
"Angels and Fallen Angels can both manipulate light?"
Yukino Yukinoshita felt a dawning realization.
"Exactly," Leon said casually. "The power of Devils is demonic power, while the power of Angels and Fallen Angels is holy power. We can shape supernatural phenomena by manipulating demonic power; Angels and Fallen Angels can condense holy power into various forms for combat."
"Incidentally, the Exorcists of the Church also use light weapons. They receive divine blessings while using the light power possessed by Angels and their years of physical training to eliminate Devils, making them our natural enemies too."
Yukino Yukinoshita finally couldn't hold back.
"Doesn't that mean everyone is a Devil's natural enemy? Does the Devil race have so many weaknesses?"
Devils, Angels, Fallen Angels... these were all the supernatural beings Yukino Yukinoshita knew existed in the hidden world, yet the other two factions completely counter Devils, and even the Church forces under the Angels counter Devils. What kind of situation was this?
Surrounded by natural enemies? Or surrounded by weaknesses?
It was important to remember that Yukino Yukinoshita founded the Service Club with the goal of "changing people's weakness to change the world." Now, she was being told that she had been reincarnated into a race riddled with weaknesses. How could she tolerate that?
Leon, in response, couldn't help but laugh.
"That's a very amusing thing to say. Could Devils possibly have more weaknesses than humans?" Leon said irritably. "Look at humans: they die if they're stabbed in a vital spot, they die if they're shot in a vital spot, they might even die from accidental bumps and bruises, let alone all sorts of diseases and terminal illnesses."
"And Devils? They have long lifespans, few diseases, strong physiques, and most human weapons can't kill them. They can even be saved, like me, by being reincarnated as a Devil once someone dies."
"Compared to humans, a Devil who only fears light—and it has to be the high-concentration holy power released by Angels or Fallen Angels—has pitifully few weaknesses, alright?"
Yukino Yukinoshita was speechless, yet still somewhat unconvinced.
"That's only when compared to humans. What if we compare ourselves to Angels and Fallen Angels?"
Yukino Yukinoshita posed this slightly sharp question.
"Do you think they have no weaknesses?" Leon smiled. "Angels generally cannot harbor selfish desires, or they will Fall, losing everything they originally possessed, and are thus easily influenced by external factors. They can only maintain their selfhood through steadfast faith."
"Fallen Angels don't have obvious weaknesses, but their population is the scarcest among the three factions. They generally only increase in numbers when Angels Fall, and their natural reproductive speed is very slow, making them the first faction among the three to face extinction."
"Currently, all three factions have fallen to the point where they must rely on human strength to continue their existence, so no one is in a position to mock anyone else."
As he spoke, Leon reached out and flicked Yukino Yukinoshita's forehead.
"Besides, even if light is a Devil's weakness, just don't get hit. If you want to overcome this weakness, work harder in the future instead of complaining here."
Just as he finished speaking, the two had arrived at the Service Club's clubroom and pushed the door open.
Touching her forehead, Yukino Yukinoshita looked at the familiar clubroom, and for some reason, her emotions became complicated again.
Did this club... still need to exist?
In the past, Yukino Yukinoshita had always conducted club activities with the aim of changing others and the world. But now, having witnessed the true world, she could no longer continue with that mindset.
She had already become a Devil; she was no longer human. Was there still a need to help humans and solve the difficulties of her classmates?
Yukino Yukinoshita pondered blankly.
Leon, in contrast, walked around the clubroom as if surveying his own territory, nodding as he went.
"This place isn't bad. Although it can't compare to Sona's Student Council Office, it's sufficient as our base in Sobu High."
Leon then crouched down, drew his fingers together, and began drawing on the floor.
Demonic power pulsed from his fingertips, carving mysterious runes and symbols into the floor as he moved, causing red lines to gradually appear on the ground.
"What are you doing?"
Yukino Yukinoshita snapped out of her daze, drawn by Leon's actions.
"Engraving a Magic Circle," Leon said without raising his head. "As long as the Magic Circle belonging to our Eligos family is engraved here, we can perform long-distance jumps by expending the demonic power within our bodies, instantly arriving at the location of another Magic Circle."
"There is one such Magic Circle in my mansion, and the flyer I gave you earlier, the one engraved on it, is the same thing."
"I've wanted to set one up at Sobu High for a long time, but unfortunately, I wasn't interested in forming a club before and didn't have a designated base, so I couldn't just mess around freely."
Yukino Yukinoshita immediately recalled the parchment Leon had given her earlier.
"That was a flyer?"
Yukino Yukinoshita expressed her reasonable confusion.
"Don't doubt it, it's a flyer." Leon glanced at the girl. "Devils living in the human world don't sit around doing nothing all day; they all have their jobs."
"Just like the legend everyone knows, the Devil's job is to be summoned by people with desires and enter into a contract with them, fulfilling their wishes in exchange for corresponding compensation."
"Sometimes it's money, sometimes objects, and occasionally a life. This is the Devil's job in the human world, which is essentially the same as what your Service Club does, just expanding the scope from the school campus to the territory that has been allocated to you."
"Once you adapt to your current identity and ability, you must also begin this work as a Familiar Devil of the Eligos family."
The Magic Circles existed for this purpose.
Few people in the modern era believe in the existence of Devils and would carve Magic Circles according to ancient texts or hold strange rituals to summon a Devil. Therefore, modern Devils, in order to successfully complete their work, draw Magic Circles on easily portable parchment and hand them out as flyers.
Any human who comes into contact with the flyer, as long as they generate a certain strong desire, can automatically activate the Magic Circle on the flyer.
When that happens, Leon and Yukino Yukinoshita can use the Magic Circles here or at the mansion to instantly teleport to the person's side.
Also...
"If the Magic Circle is opened to outsiders, external Devils can also use their own Magic Circles to teleport to our location," Leon said to Yukino Yukinoshita, concentrating on carving the Magic Circle. "Within the next couple of days, another high-ranking Devil who has been representing the Underworld to assist and liaise with me will arrive."
"I have just been promoted to a high-ranking Devil and recruited my first Familiar. It's only right, both personally and logically, that they come to take a look."
"Remember to be prepared."
With those words, Leon finally completed the Magic Circle.
It was a standard circular array, entirely red, with a diameter of about six or seven meters, occupying a significant portion of the Service Club's clubroom floor area.
"By the way, do you want to keep the Service Club, or change the name of this club?"
Leon clapped his hands and smiled at Yukino Yukinoshita.
"From now on, this place will be the Eligos Familiar's clubroom."